Canadian public service union celebrates new prime minister

Debi Daviau, president of the 55,000-strong Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC)

Canada’s largest public servants’ union has described the election victory by new prime minister Justin Trudeau as an “opportunity for real and positive change” and pledged its support for the country’s new Liberal government.

Canada’s Liberal Party decisively won last week’s general election, ending nearly a decade of Conservative rule.

Writing in an open letter to Trudeau, Debi Daviau, president of the 55,000-strong Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), said that “now an opportunity for real and positive change has emerged and, like our fellow citizens, we are eager to pursue it.”

She added: “We stand ready to refocus our efforts on supporting the start of a new, positive and progressive era and, not least, the restoration of a strong, independent, professional federal public service that is relied on to provide evidence-based expertise in support of the development and delivery of programs and services to Canadians.”

While congratulating Trudeau on his election success, Daviau also urged him and his government to fulfil “a number of the key commitments” made during the election campaign.

“Canada’s ability to innovate, to protect the health and safety of its citizens, and to regain its rightful standing in the world depends on moving quickly to end the muzzling of federal scientists, to restore evidence to its rightful place in policy-making and to reinvest in critical public services,” she wrote.

She called for integrity to “be urgently restored to a tax system that has lost the mandate and the capacity to crack down on tax evasion” and said that “Canada’s new government must also rapidly reassert the rule of law not least by repealing anti-labour legislation and restoring free collective bargaining with federal government employees.”

In an open letter to public servants before the election, Trudeau said that his government “would review the bargaining mandate”, adding that his party “is committed to bargaining in good faith with public sector unions” and to “supporting and protecting workers’ rights.”

About Winnie Agbonlahor

Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.

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